Colorado reported 33 new coronavirus-related deaths Thursday, bringing the total to 227.
That’s the largest single-day increase in reported deaths, surpassing the 29 new deaths that were reported Tuesday. But health officials say not to view the jump as an alarming spike.
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment said the increase was actually because of delayed reporting.
“You’ll notice a large spike in today’s case summary for Colorado,” the agency said on Twitter. “This is due to cases and deaths that occurred days and weeks prior, but not reported to the state until today.”
The grim update comes despite public health officials’ assurances that the state’s social-distancing measures – like Gov. Jared Polis’ statewide stay-at-home order – are working and that the peak of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, has been delayed until at least May.
Among the deaths is 21-year-old Cody Lyster, a student at Colorado Mesa University in Grand Junction, who died of complications related to COVID-19.
“When not on the club baseball field, Cody was pursuing a degree in criminal justice,” CMU President Tim Foster wrote in a letter to the university’s community. “This pursuit was a path following in his father’s footsteps. … The fact that Cody did not contract the virus on campus is a painful reminder that even as students remain at home and engage in remote learning, that certain risks remain for all people of all ages.”
David Ludlam, a spokesman for CMU, said Lyster was a Colorado resident. The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel reports he was 21, making him the youngest person with a confirmed case of coronavirus to die of the disease in Colorado so far.
“While older Coloradans are most at risk, this virus can take a deadly turn for people of all ages,” Polis said in a written statement. “That’s why we need to stay at home except when absolutely necessary.”
The number of confirmed cases in Colorado ballooned to more than 6,200 on Thursday. About 1,200 of those are or have been hospitalized, an increase of about 25 over Wednesday. The five-county region of Southwest Colorado was reporting 42 cases in La Plata County, eight in Montezuma, six in Archuleta, and zero in San Juan and Dolores. San Juan County (N.M.) was reporting 126 cases.
Colorado doesn’t release information about people who are discharged from the hospital.
Officials say there may actually be tens of thousands of people infected but that because of limited testing resources, they have not been identified.
Polis on Wednesday warned that the worst of the disease is still ahead.
“There are more victims ahead of us than there are behind us,” he told reporters at a news conference earlier in the day. “We know that there are many more losses ahead.”
Denver County is leading the state with 38 coronavirus-related fatalities.
Colorado’s coronavirus-related fatalities are being driven by patients at nursing homes and senior care facilities. The Colorado Sun has found that through Wednesday that cohort accounted for one-third of all deaths.
At least 122 of Colorado’s coronavirus-related deaths have been among people 80 and older.
Polis said the coming week will be an important measure of how Colorado will fare going forward with the virus. “The next week of data is going to be absolutely critical.”
The governor is hopeful the statistics will show his efforts to limit Coloradans’ movement – including a stay-at-home order now in effect until April 26 – have worked to slow the disease’s spread.
Polis spoke to reporters Wednesday at the governor’s mansion in Denver instead of the state’s emergency operations center because someone who works at the latter facility has tested positive for the virus. The governor said temperature screening at the emergency operations center alerted the person that they were ill before they felt unwell.
Also on Wednesday, the Colorado Department of Corrections reported the first coronavirus case among one of its prisoners. The inmate was in isolation at the Buena Vista Correctional Complex after arriving from Denver’s City Jail on March 26.
“This inmate had been in quarantine since arriving at the prison and did not enter the general population or go out into the facility,” prisons officials said in a written statement. “The inmate was quarantined with one cellmate who will continue to be monitored by CDOC medical staff.”
Last week an inmate at Denver’s downtown jail tested positive for COVID-19.
